AAFP Issues Updated Financial Statement, Reiterates Privacy Policy

The Academy has posted its annual financial summary (1-page PDF; About PDFs) as required by the AAFP Bylaws. The summary has been certified by a public accountant.

According to the Bylaws, the Academy's account books "are open to inspection upon the written demand of any member at any reasonable time, for any purpose reasonably related to the member's interest as a member, and shall be produced at any time when requested by the demand of 10 percent of the members at any meeting of the Assembly." Any demand for inspection, other than at such a meeting of AAFP members, must be made in writing and addressed to the president or secretary of the Academy.

In addition, the AAFP also wants members to be aware of the Academy's privacy policy, which is for members who use the organization's website, AAFP.org. The document, which notes that the Academy is dedicated to protecting the privacy of its members, lays out information on the kind of information the AAFP collects from various visitors to the AAFP.org website, how the AAFP uses the data it collects and how the Academy uses cookies.

In particular, the Academy collects the following information from all visitors to AAFP.org:

In addition, the Academy tracks the user name and member identification of users who log into a password-protected area on the AAFP's website. This data is used to better serve members and other visitors to the website and to improve website content, respond to visitor needs and preferences, and develop new products and services.

The AAFP also uses cookies on some areas of its website to personalize members' visits, offer greater functionality and track visitor practices. Users must have cookies enabled to visit the member sections of the AAFP website.

The Academy wants members to know that it does not disclose credit card account information or activity by members or other users of the AAFP website. All data from credit cards is submitted in an encrypted format, and, if stored, the numbers also are encrypted.